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AT&T data plan for iPhone IS unlimited
- Thread starter -aggie-
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Still waiting for links to the "soft cap" limit...............
why does it matter if the 5GB limit is in the TOS or not? if you are tethering you are breaching the TOS and at&t will use that to cut off your service, they dont need a hard or soft cap.
if you are simply streaming internet radio/youtube and hitting 5GB+, at&t could still use this section to terminate your service. all they have to say is "your usage is straining the network and negatively impacting the service of other customers."
(my own emphasis)
so whether its explicitly spelled out or not, at&t can still pwn you.
ahhh i see.. you're math seemed a little off to me when i read it, but that makes sense.. thanks!
this is not true. i used to work for the company, there is NO cap for the data plan, whether it be an iphone, blackberry, lg vu, whatever....the data plan is UNLIMITED as UNLIMITED GETS! now there is a cap on data cards, it says nothing about being unlimited, it is capped at 5gb/month. on sprint, they used to advertise "Unlimited data" (with a soft cap of 5gb) meaning when you go over, you get a phone call. but notice the quotations they used on the word unlimited.
simply put, if it is not unlimited, there would be documents to show. otherwise, they would be sued by millions of users in a heartbeat.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms.jsp#data
find me the text in here that shows a 'cap'. do they cap my minutes since i have UNLIMITED minutes per month. i don't think so.
edit: also, they dont watch your 'trends' month to month. what if one month you dont use it too much, then the next you are on the road or out of town and you blow the thing up using it. they cant monitor usage and charge you based on that.
+1
If you are using your iPhone and the data plan in a legit way, you most likely will not have obscene amounts of data.
A cap, if any exists, would be of concern to a minute amount of iPhone users.
A cap, if any exists, would be of concern to a minute amount of iPhone users.
There are no such statements from AT&T. Yesterday while we were having this discussion in another thread here, I did some searching to try and come up with these statements. All I could find were tech sites such as Gizmodo stating that AT&T came out and said there were soft caps with no proof or links to the actual statements. These were from the very first iPhone release. These rumors just keep circulating and it's about time they stop.
FYI, the original post has nothing to do with tethering. I simply wanted to state as others have stated, but many keep misstating in other threads, that the iPhone data plan is unlimited (see TOS) and there is nothing out there that states otherwise. So, go to the tethering threads if you want to rant about tethering (or don't, your choice), but we already have enough threads on tethering (and MMS, etc.)
Thanks SpaceKitty. This is why I wanted to make this a sticky, but I guess the mods don't think it's sticky worthy
I know this thread is old, but I've been trying to get a straight answer about iPhone data plan caps and ran across this thread.
Since you were looking for practical examples of how one could hit a 5GB cap, I thought I would chime in:
A 128kbps radio station streamed for 4.5 hours per work day (20 days per month) will eat up approx. 4.94GB within a calendar month.
Personally this very scenario was the cause for my search... I have a college radio station that I love to listen to, but can not get on my normal commute or while at work...
My commute varies from 30-90 minutes per day each direction which accounts for 1-3 hours of potential use per day.
At work I listen at my desk, but I frequently work in a noisy lab and may be moving between workstations so dragging a laptop around to listen is not always practical, the iPhone works perfectly in this situation. Unfortunately the IT dept at my office does not permit non-corporate devices to connect to our WiFi network, but I get great 3G signal everywhere
... Listening during the day may be anywhere from 2-6 hours depending on what I'm doing.So it's not very hard to see the potential for listening an average of 4.5 hours per work day --- and that's before I ever consider the other usage such as personal email, IMs, web browsing, etc that I might do during a given month.
So streaming a radio station is a very real-world practical example of how you can bump your head against a 5GB cap.
...I won't even get into the rumors of a Netflix Watch Instantly app that seems to circulating, tho I'd guess that will be restricted to WiFi connections only as Skype's VoIP app currently is...
I am also concerned about this. I've recently subscribed to Slacker plus and have been using it about the same amount of time per day; 4 hours. I've also bought Orb Live app so I could set up my htpc at home to stream TV to my iPhone. I imagine this will put me way over the so called "soft cap" of 5GB limit or, my biggest worry, imagine that AT&T could consider this "excessive usage". Those are legitimate uses of my iPhone. If the use of those two applications, sold by Apple, are going to be considered "excessive", they should not be selling them. I am curious to know weather anyone has ever reached over 5GB data and then got contacted by AT&T.
I know this thread is old, but I've been trying to get a straight answer about iPhone data plan caps and ran across this thread.
Since you were looking for practical examples of how one could hit a 5GB cap, I thought I would chime in:
A 128kbps radio station streamed for 4.5 hours per work day (20 days per month) will eat up approx. 4.94GB within a calendar month.
Personally this very scenario was the cause for my search... I have a college radio station that I love to listen to, but can not get on my normal commute or while at work...
My commute varies from 30-90 minutes per day each direction which accounts for 1-3 hours of potential use per day.
At work I listen at my desk, but I frequently work in a noisy lab and may be moving between workstations so dragging a laptop around to listen is not always practical, the iPhone works perfectly in this situation. Unfortunately the IT dept at my office does not permit non-corporate devices to connect to our WiFi network, but I get great 3G signal everywhere
So it's not very hard to see the potential for listening an average of 4.5 hours per work day --- and that's before I ever consider the other usage such as personal email, IMs, web browsing, etc that I might do during a given month.
So streaming a radio station is a very real-world practical example of how you can bump your head against a 5GB cap.
...I won't even get into the rumors of a Netflix Watch Instantly app that seems to circulating, tho I'd guess that will be restricted to WiFi connections only as Skype's VoIP app currently is...
Of course! I think you ignored every time someone mentioned the part of the contract that says that AT&T could do something if you use data excessively. The term "excessive usage" is too broad.
I had an issue with my phone yesterday, where I was using an app to listen to some streaming audio over 3G. I listened to maybe 30-40 minutes, before I got home, and mack to my Wi-Fi network.
I noticed later that my phone was dead. I was sure closed the App when I put down my phone, but maybe not.
When I checked my AT&T usage later that day, it said I had used 1.1GB of data during this time! I am not sure if this came from the streaming audio or something else.
I have see other peaks of usage - in the 500MB range, which seems odd, but I do use this app in my car from time to time.
I use my phone for light surfing and very minimal e-mail, so this is by far the highest usage I have seen.
I am going to do some more experiments this weekend and see how much usage I get in a controlled listening test...
Anyway, it just goes to show you that with streaming services, it is easier to rack up data than you would think...
That's why I said "the so called 'soft cap'". I also don't believe it's ever been explicitly mentioned by AT&T but it's implicit in the term "excessive usage".
Who knows what "excessive usage" is. It's never been defined and the "soft cap" limit of 5 GB is something someone pulled out of the air, but which is really a limit for another technology (air cards, IIRC). So, yes, AT&T can terminate due to excessive usage, but you don't really know what that is. Like you said, the term is too broad. However, it's not 5 GB. Also, AT&T advertises an unlimited data plan for the iPhone, so were they to attempt to use the "excessive usage" clause for an iPhone, I'd suspect they might have a lawsuit on their hands. Anyway, if you want to worry about "excessive usage," then that's your problem, but please don't spread pure speculation (I mean that in the nicest way).
All I know is that I once reached a 6gig worth of dl two months ago and I didn't get disconnected or charged extra
guys guys guys..you are arguing over panties. I mean dont get your panties tied around this.
att does not limit data and doesnt charge you more than other people. That disclaimer from ATT is all for legal purposes. ATT says those things that way from a legal standpoint they can do basically anything and not face a lawsuit. ATT does not actively go around limiting certain people for excessive data nor do they charge you different rates either.
att does not limit data and doesnt charge you more than other people. That disclaimer from ATT is all for legal purposes. ATT says those things that way from a legal standpoint they can do basically anything and not face a lawsuit. ATT does not actively go around limiting certain people for excessive data nor do they charge you different rates either.
I don't know why you took that personally. The fact the contract says they can terminate a contract because of excessive usage means data usage is not unlimited. This is very contradictory to what they advertise and I agree it is open for class action lawsuit, but I would be really upset if I had to go through the hassle of being harassed by AT&T or having my contract terminated. That's why I expressed my worry which goes in line with your first post. There might not be an explicit 5GB "soft cap" but they explicitly mentioned that there is a limitation when they say they can terminate a contract due to excessive usage. I also understand we don't know what that means exactly, that's a big problem, but it does open to speculation - whether you like it or not.
I believe a claus like the "excessive use" has already held up in court more than once on other cases. "All you can eat" is not really all you can eat.
It would be a fairly open shut case that already has presidencies on AT&T's side.
They will, but if you spend more than 10GB on your iPhone, that's a big sign you need to go out more or watch it less.
All mobile phones =/= iPhone
They see you trolling they hatin.... in any case, tethering is an extra level of service or business. They have a right to charge you for that or cap you. Texts... well, everyone has charged for texts since the dawn of texting.